Does anyone else no longer recognise the tech community?

[mrochester]

3.5mm Headphones never need recharged. And you'll likely need a new set of Bluetooth headphones so you'll spend more money. Ideally on the same brand as your phone.
Wireless charging gives you LESS freedom to use your device compared to a cable, not more.
Micro SD Cards allow you to upgrade the storage on your phone simply, quickly and cheaply. Phone manufacturers don't want you doing that, they want you to buy a new phone with bigger capacity.

Many of the technological 'improvements' these days aren't for our benefit, they're for the companies, the manufacturers and the retailers. They exist to get us to spend money, not because they represent a massive technological leap over what came before. There's ZERO reason to remove the headphone jack, although I will concede it allows phones to become thinner but how thin does a phone really need to be, other than to make us all rush out and buy Bluetooth headphones, often at £100+, sometimes if you want earpods, £200+.

You'll always have a wire with a pair of wired headphones but wireless headphones only need to be connected to something when charging. Why would I need a new set of bluetooth headphones?

 

[mrochester]

requires both of them to be in at the same time though because they are attached by a wire or what?

when I cycle I only use one headphone so I am still aware of whats going on behind me (not cycling on roads) and if it happens to fall out It's not lost since the wire goes up the inside of my tshirt and our of my my collar enabling it to safely dangle

No requirement for them both to be in, they can operate independent of one another. They are wireless headphones, no wires.

 

[MissChief]

You'll always have a wire with a pair of wired headphones but wireless headphones only need to be connected to something when charging. Why would I need a new set of bluetooth headphones?

Like I said, wired headphones never need charged. Some poor Bluetooth versions only last 2-3 hours. If they need charged 2-3 times a day, what's the point? If you had a set of 3.5mm headphones and you buy a new phone without a 3.5mm jack, you'd need a new pair of Bluetooth headphones?

 

[mrochester]

Not sarcastic, just honest. Your threads always end up the same way and thats because pretend to ask an open question to invite debate, but what you're actually do is state an opinion then tell everybody else they are wrong ad infinitum. This is what you always do. Just in this thread, for instance, you have already told us we're a forum full of non-tech enthusiasts because we 'push against new tech' and don't adopt and yet i've just reeled off a list of technologies, most of which you've never touched let alone bought in to.

I'm sorry if you don't like it, it's just the truth.

So why can’t we have a discussion about why some people are shunning the obvious direction of travel for Bluetooth headphones, USBC, cloud storage etc? As an enthusiast I can see and welcome the obvious benefit of these. Why do some people not see the obvious benefit of these things? These are the people/community I no longer recognise as being the same as me in terms of being an enthusiast.

 

[arknor]

also lets not forget there is a point where the benefits have to justify the increased costs and for many of us the benefits are often negligible

or the benefits become an annoyance like having to worry about charging multiple devices per day

 

[mrochester]

Like I said, wired headphones never need charged. Some poor Bluetooth versions only last 2-3 hours. If they need charged 2-3 times a day, what's the point? If you had a set of 3.5mm headphones and you buy a new phone without a 3.5mm jack, you'd need a new pair of Bluetooth headphones?

Why? Just connect your wired headphones to an adapter that connects to the port on your phone?

I think you’d be unwise to buy headphones with only 2-3 hours battery life!

 

[mrochester]

also lets not forget there is a point where the benefits have to justify the increased costs and for many of us the benefits are often negligible

I don’t think cost ever massively factors into a hobby like this!

 

[james.miller]

So why can’t we have a discussion about why some people are shunning the obvious direction of travel for Bluetooth headphones, USBC, cloud storage etc? As an enthusiast I can see and welcome the obvious benefit of these. Why do some people not see the obvious benefit of these things?

Discussions are awesome, but your idea of a discussion is everybody agreeing with you. I already said for example that moving to pure cloud storage is almost impossible and i believe it's a complimentary technology, not a replacement. That's a discussion, but you dont agree with it so that leaves you telling us we just dont understand.

Same as always.

 

[mrochester]

also lets not forget there is a point where the benefits have to justify the increased costs and for many of us the benefits are often negligible

or the benefits become an annoyance like having to worry about charging multiple devices per day

I think this is what I mean by over-egging an issue. Is placing your phone and watch on a wireless charger at the end of the day *really* that much of a hardship?

 

[mrochester]

Discussions are awesome, but your idea of a discussion is everybody agreeing with you. I already said for example that moving to pure cloud storage is almost impossible and i believe it's a complimentary technology, not a replacement. That's a discussion, but you dont agree with it so that leaves you telling us we just dont understand.

Same as always.

I don’t think we should be pure cloud storage but I do believe our primary storage will be cloud based, not on micro SD cards as in the past.

 

[Werewolf]

I don’t think we should be pure cloud storage but I do believe our primary storage will be cloud based, not on micro SD cards as in the past.

Only an idiot relies purely on one form of media for things like digital photos for storage, especially when you have very little control over it (one hacked user account and you've potentially lost most of your photos).

Not to mention you don't necessarily want to have your audio/video failing whilst you're using your device because you've hit a bad spot in reception (also a 256gb micro sd costs ~40, most mobiles seem to charge a massive premium to just go to 128gb).

Things like 3.5mm headphones are still liked because they just work, no faffing about making sure your headphones are charged and given the battery life of a lot of modern phones anything that reduces the battery use such as being able to not use bluetooth can help.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Benefit should always be the outcome but that’s what we get from the things I listed.

No. Wired headphones will, in almost all consumer grade cases, be superior to a Bluetooth connection. Apple pushed this 'innovation' because fewer wires=better experience, which is false, but let's be fair and say it improves ease of use or is more convenient.

Bluetooth sounds worse because physics. There is no clear benefit here, it's merely rearranging priorities and hyping the benefit while ignoring the negative. This is an easy example but there are many more which could be made.

 

[adolf hamster]

But those things do makes things easier and more practical. That’s the point I’m making. ‘Normal’ people tend not to see the benefit until after the tech-enthusiasts have long since adopted these things. The fact that we are having the very conversation where some people don’t want these advancements is precisely the point I’m making. I don’t recognise a forum of so-called tech enthusiasts not being enthused by tech and actively shunning it!

how does waiting 1 minute for a phone to fail to recognise your face then unlocking it manually with a pass code better than having it unlock immediately with a single button press?

how does having a microsd card preclude you using a cloud sync? hell the microsd is still better because moving a 128gb sd card takes a crapload less time than shifting the same data through an internet connection.

just because a technology is newer doesn't mean it's better and dismissing something new and fancy because it doesn't make any worthwhile improvement on what's out there doesn't mean a lack of enthusiasm for advancement.

you can feel free to dismiss people's different opinions on what constitutes being enthusiastic about technology, but you suggesting that i'm not a tech enthusiast because my phone has a 3.5mm jack is as ridiculous as me dismissing every other phone on the market for not having a thermal imaging camera.

 

[Lopéz]

So why can’t we have a discussion about why some people are shunning the obvious direction of travel for Bluetooth headphones, USBC, cloud storage etc? As an enthusiast I can see and welcome the obvious benefit of these. Why do some people not see the obvious benefit of these things? These are the people/community I no longer recognise as being the same as me in terms of being an enthusiast.

Because most people, tech enthusiasts or otherwise, will weigh up advantages and disadvantages of potential solutions and reach a decision based on the combined output of those factors.
They generally don't then have a final parameter of IF Techenthusiast=TRUE, disregard all influencing factors and select the most advanced /modern solution.

 

[Malevolence]

Benefit should always be the outcome but that’s what we get from the things I listed.

You get better sound quality over wired headphones than you do over Bluetooth. So where's the benefit in using wireless?

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Then there's the "good enough" thing, which has been a growing problem. For example, my workplace is still using PCs from the 1990s. Why? Because they're good enough. They still work and they're still powerful enough for the things they're used for. So why spend money on new kit that will provide the same functionality and just do nothing more often in between?

"Tech enthusiast" <> workplace

If it gets the job done then why would they want to spend considerable amounts of money just to be at the white heat of technology and then do the same thing in a couple of years time? Who are they trying to impress? The workspace workers couldn't care less in all honesty for them its simply a tool. Now if an argument can be made for a new improved model saving time and increasing productivity than put it to the management but otherwise you're simply going to look like some kind of tech zealot.

Enthusiasts on the other hand will get off on whatever excites them and are prepared to pay good money for it but that doesn't mean its necessary. The guy in the flats above has some kind of souped up sports car exhaust makes a hell of racket and he can't wait to deafen everyone down the road when he takes off and floors it. Is that necessary to buy a car like that? Does it give him some advantage in the workplace? Will it cut his journeytime to work on the crowded roads? I doubt it.

 

[Lopéz]

Mildly ironic that you mrochester related uses the word "normob", a word that appeared what, 10 or so years ago, had its few minutes in the sun and then disappeared as rapidly as it appeared.

Does anyone really use the word "normob"?

I'm not saying that in the same way as people say things like "Do people still eat McDonald's?!", I really mean it - who on earth says normob?!

 

[Ahleckz]

Cloud storage does my head in. All I have is notifications from apple that my iPhone stowage is full, trying to force me to pay for online storage. Why not let me have an SD card? I’m convinced it’s not full, I mean all I have on it is pictures.

So, cheap cloud storage. Where should I be looking?

Also, what is a normob?

 

[G-MAN2004]

Also, what is a normob?

Normal mobile user. The opposite of a phone geek.

 

[mmj_uk]

I've always used wired stuff when possible, don't really want to be messing around replacing batteries if I don't need to and it's not particularly good for the environment to be going through batteries just so that you don't have to have a cord attached.

I think a lot of new technologies are at best not a particularly good idea or simply change for the sake of change and at worst an assault on personal privacy but of course they're always marketed positively and people generally lap them up.